Sally Pipes comes to the defense!"USA Today article".“The Kaiser Family Foundation released recently its latest estimate of what health insurance will cost in the future. By 2021, average family premiums are set to double, to more than $32,000. This year alone the premium is $15,073, up 9% from 2010.” She is talking about the Health Affairs article penned by two authors from Columbia, one of whom happens to be one of President Obama’s chief healthcare advisors. These authors state "We conclude that the higher fees … were the main drivers of higher U.S. spending," and "Physicians are making five times the median income. Is that what we really want?" They compared doctors' pay in six developed countries and found that U.S. earnings surpassed the rest. Basically, the authors unload and lay the entire blame on physician fees as the culprit for our health care ills."HA article". Sally Pipes argues that education costs here are higher and almost 4-10 times the cost of medical school in the US. The average work week is longer, about ½ the income goes to overhead and liability insurance higher. It is interesting that physician compensation in the US runs about 20% of the health care bill and take home pay about 10% of the nation’s health bill. Comment: I expect nothing less from academics with no clinical background who are far removed from patient care. There is no question that US physicians in general are better paid than their counterparts in other countries. However, to blame all the ills on 1/5 of the spending is disingenuous and betrays a preexisting agenda. They ignore the old saying ‘go where the money is’ and where big dollars are spent : hospitals and nursing homes. That is not to shift blame because physicians have to get their act together and stop the waste and abuse that they see. But, any well intentioned practicing physician put in charge of the system can point to a 100 places where the waste is if they will let us do it!